From the Allegory of the cave, Plato seems to imply that we gain knowledge through our senses. This is the same way the prisoners in the cave gain their understanding of the shadows. By what they saw they were able to gather information and make conclusions. The prisoner distinguished the shapes of the shadows, named them, and were able to converse about them, the shadows were their reality. But although this is the way we gain knowledge it can’t always be trusted. Because the prisoners could only see what was in front of them they believed the shadows were actual beings other than projections of three dimensional animals and objects that we know of. We can’t trust our senses because they only show what is in front of us, if we try to make conclusions by only that, there would be too …show more content…
It is only safe to say that all we know is nothing and not to cling on to our belief because of the undetermined amount of information that is missing from our understanding.
Although the truth is uncertain, Plato has an idea call the theory of Forms which gives us a concept of reality. The theory discusses how we are able to characterize not only perceptual objects, like triangles, colors, and chairs but abstract ideas like friendship, equality, justice, and beauty. The theory of Forms have two distinct levels of reality, the visible world of sights and sounds that we inhabit and the intelligible world of Forms that stands above the visible world and gives it being. One way Louis P. Pojman, the author of Philosophy: The Pursuit of Wisdom, helps us understand the world of the Forms is through this question, what do many things have in common? In which Pojman answered, the one Form. There is only one